Washing Cloth Diapers
CLOTH DIAPER DETERGENTS:
- NO fabric softeners or additives like bleach or oxi-clean for cloth diaper detergents. These will either deteriorate your diapers over time, or build up and cause repelling issues.
- NO dryer sheets
- The most common cloth diaper detergent is Original Tide Powder, but many mainstream detergents will work as long as they do not contain additives
- Homemade or all natural soaps are usually either not strong enough to get your diapers clean, will not rinse out easily, or are made from borax which can ruin your PUL
- You do NOT need to add double or triple the amount of detergent to get your diapers clean! Just the recommended amount for a heavy soil load on your detergent box is enough.
WASH ROUTINE:
- Make sure you have enough diapers in your load to agitate with each other. If you need to bulk up your load a bit you can add washcloths or other small items, but nothing too large like a towel that will wrap around your diapers.
- First, you'll want to rinse away all the urine before your heavy duty wash. Choose a rinse or quick wash cycle with cold or warm water (not hot), either with no detergent or a very small amount of detergent.
- Next, choose a long wash cycle (usually a heavy duty cycle) on high soil and high spin. Either warm or hot water. Use the recommended amount of detergent for a heavy soil load.
- Add an extra rinse at the end to wash away any extra detergent
- That's it! Easy!
- To dry, most inserts can be dried on low heat in your dryer. Hang covers to dry. Avoid drying on high heat as it can shorten the life of your elastics and PUL (waterproof layer).
- If you do decide to dry all diapers in the dryer, let them cool completely before stretching and stuffing.
- If your diapers are stiff after air drying, you can throw them in the dryer with no heat to fluff them up.
DETERGENT BUILD UP:
- The most common problem with washing cloth diapers is detergent build up. If your diapers begin to smell once they're peed in or aren't as absorbent, detergent build up may be the problem.
- During your last rinse, peek inside your washer. If there are still suds in the water, the detergent is not fully rinsed out.
- Adding more rinses until water is clear is all it takes to fix the problem! Depending on the amount of build up, it may take a few rinses.
WASHING ADVICE:
- Beware of the cloth diaper washing groups on social media which can give very different advice and can void your warranties on diapers.
- When in doubt, check directly with the manufacturer of your diapers or check their social media page. Many brands show videos and answer questions on washing their diapers!
- We try to include wash advice specific to each brand on each listing on our website :)
